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Watch Omega Access for a Beautiful Lesson in Self-Defined Masculinity

As our m.bodiment project continues to emphasize, masculinity is not the rigid norm that it is modelled out to be. We see this in each of our m.bassadors, and in the stories they’ve told in their profiles and in our video series. Fellow Movember Foundation partner Omega Access is also exploring this idea in a beautiful online video series that is being shown to boys ages 13-16 in order to challenge their developing definitions of masculinity, and reinforce in them the idea of self-defined gender identity.

Each video in the series offers a rich, complex profile of potential role-model figures— thus far, a Torontonian surfer named Antonio, a drag performer named Sheldon, and a folk musician named Marczyk. Each man expresses their past insecurities with masculine identity in their own terms, demonstrating that ultimately their passions defined their youth, not their machismo. The videos never rest on a “true” template of masculinity until the final act of each video, when the subject is able to voice masculinity in their own words.

Sheldon sums up the spirit of the series in a fairly succinct statement. “Be comfortable with yourself and be who you are. Don’t try to act masculine. Just make sure that’s it, and don’t make it so hard for everyone else.”

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[…] our programming, so that the young men we work with understand that they don’t have to follow the old rules of what it means to ‘be a man’ and that this shouldn’t hold us back from addressing our mental […]

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Some of the images on this site show men in various stages of undress. This is intended to be educational and open a dialogue about men’s bodies; gay, bi, trans, and queer men’s body image; mental health; and health and wellness.

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